State officials have clarified a rule that required parents to immunize their own children as a condition of caring for foster or adoptive children, saying families whose children have a medical reason to forgo vaccinations can become licensed.

The policy was sent Tuesday to the agencies that train and oversee foster parents. It means would-be adoptive parents who choose not to fully immunize their own children won’t be automatically disqualified as foster parents.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Gina Apilado, who says her oldest child had a serious reaction to vaccinations as an infant. “But we’re not finished yet.”

She and other parents say disqualifying them because they opt not to vaccinate is wrong, particularly when Arizona’s foster-care system is overflowing.

The parents have support from two key lawmakers to eliminate the vaccination requirement altogether. But recent push-back from pediatricians and other public-health experts — and a wicked whooping-cough outbreak — could soften the legislation to ensure that foster children under 2 years old are placed with immunized kids.

The current rule says, “(E)ach child residing in the foster home shall have all childhood immunizations appropriate to the child’s age and health.”

The Department of Economic Security, which oversees foster-care licensing, sent notices this week to its licensing agencies clarifying eligibility for parents who prove their own child can’t be fully vaccinated for medical reasons.

Parents must submit a signed statement from a physician or a nurse practitioner certifying the medical condition, according to the DES policy.

The DES said last month that the immunization requirement protects children who have been removed from their homes because of suspected abuse or neglect and who may not be fully immunized. That includes newborns who aren’t old enough to have had any shots.

Licensing agencies had been discouraging parents from continuing with foster-care licensing once they learned that biological children weren’t fully vaccinated. But the revised DES policy encourages the agencies to accept applications from non-vaccinating parents if they are accompanied by the medical documentation.

“(The) clarification is in response to questions raised by the public regarding the meaning of the existing regulation,” the DES said in a written statement. The agency said it will consider applications on a “case-by-case basis, giving primary consideration to the safety and welfare of children who are, or may be, placed with the foster family.”

Apilado and parent Susann Van Tienderen, who want to adopt through the DES, have been pushing state officials and lawmakers to recognize the medical exemption for several months, since they were turned away from local licensing agencies. Apilado said she is now pursuing private adoption, and Van Tienderen’s family isn’t eligible under the now-clarified DES policy because she chose not to fully vaccinate her children, ages 1 and 4, for personal reasons.

Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, and Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, said last month that they would introduce identical bills eliminating the vaccination requirement for foster-home licensure.

The lawmakers met Tuesday with DES Director Clarence Carter and state Department of Health Services Director Will Humble to discuss the issue. Lesko said both men were fine with the legislation, though Humble expressed concern about children under 2 years old because of the whooping-cough outbreak.

“If we need to add that language in, we were ready to do it yesterday,” she said.

Arizona’s pediatricians also are weighing in. Dr. Dale Guthrie, president of the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, sent a letter this week to the DES urging officials not to place foster children who aren’t fully immunized into homes with non-vaccinated kids.

Guthrie, a Gilbert pediatrician, is scheduled to meet later this month with Barto and Lesko about their bill.

“A lot of these kids are medically fragile to begin with,” Guthrie said. “They absolutely should not be exposed to kids who are not immunized.”

He also questioned the need for legislation, saying the issue has been raised by “a couple of very vocal people who are trying to change the system.”

“I don’t see that we’re going to have non-immunizing families coming out of the woodwork,” Guthrie said.

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